Cable and Housing Advise for Avid Mechanical Disc

I just bought some avid mechanical discs (160mm) and I need to buy some new cables and housing anybody got any recommendations? Iíve never run discs before and I am willing to spend a little extra money to set them up right the first time.

I thought about avid full metal jackets but with my FSR Enduro there arenít many straight cable runs so I donít know if it would be worth it. Anybody got any advice or experience with flak jacket, gore, jagwire, ectÖ or should I stick with shimano or generic housing and cables? (I set the front up with some left over generic cable and housing and it didn't feel too impressive!)

I just bought some avid mechanical discs (160mm) and I need to buy some new cables and housing anybody got any recommendations?

Forget the fancy stuff, get yourself some Shimano cables and housing by the roll, install and get your Avids broken in. Clarks are also good value. Cables just aren't worth worrying about, there aren't many bad ones around and you don't have to pay boutique prices to get well functioning ones.

I just bought some avid mechanical discs (160mm) and I need to buy some new cables and housing anybody got any recommendations? Iíve never run discs before and I am willing to spend a little extra money to set them up right the first time.

I thought about avid full metal jackets but with my FSR Enduro there arenít many straight cable runs so I donít know if it would be worth it. Anybody got any advice or experience with flak jacket, gore, jagwire, ectÖ or should I stick with shimano or generic housing and cables? (I set the front up with some left over generic cable and housing and it didn't feel too impressive!)

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

I used Flak Jackets. I can't say if they work any better than the cheap stuff, but what the heck, the levers feel good and light. I think most important is to run full housing to the back. I have a Stumpy FSR and just drilled the aluminum cable guide inserts and ran the housing through them. It seems to be working pretty well.

Not sure what you meant by

Originally Posted by pulloff

I just bought some avid mechanical discs (160mm) and I need to buy some new cables and housing anybody got any recommendations? Iíve never run discs before and I am willing to spend a little extra money to set them up right the first time.

I thought about avid full metal jackets but with my FSR Enduro there arenít many straight cable runs so I donít know if it would be worth it. Anybody got any advice or experience with flak jacket, gore, jagwire, ectÖ or should I stick with shimano or generic housing and cables? (I set the front up with some left over generic cable and housing and it didn't feel too impressive!)

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

"it didn't feel too impressive!", but if you were talking about the stopping power, disk brakes of any brand/model requires a break in period. I'm going to assume that the installation was done properly and the pads/rotors are lined up correctly and you didn't foul the pads/rotors with oil (even touching them with your fingers will get oil on there). It takes quite a few long hard stops to get the brakes up to maximum stopping power. I've used regular no name brand cables/housing and they worked fine. That said, I now use the Avid Flak Jackets. No real difference, but they match my bike a little better. I hope this post didn't sound condescending or anything. This was not my intention.

Sorry about the vague "it didn't feel too impressive!Ē to clarify: thereís 2í of snow outside so I havenít actually ridden the bike yet. Iím trying to get it finished so when the first nice weather gets here I can take it for a spin (fingers crossed, soon!!).

I was referring to how smooth or rather unsmooth the cable and housing combination felt when pulling on the brake lever. It almost felt as if I could feel every braid of the cable slip across every rib in the housing. The cable was clean and the housing was brand new. I cut it with the dremel and debured the ends, and I use an industrial silicone mold release agent used in injection molding on all my cables, seems to do a real good job. The housing is most likely the culprit, it was some really cheap junk left over from a friends bike that I somehow wound up with.

I have been looking around my shop/bike room to see if I have any Shimano or Campy Ergo housing (I almost laugh at the though of putting campy housing on a mtb but itís quality housing) but I havenít been able to find any pieces long enough. I plan on picking up some new housing and cables but just wanted input from people who have already run these brakes to see if they noticed any differences in any of the housing/cable combinations.

A side note:
I ride in Western NY, my rides always consist of mud, muck, and tons of stream crossings. I take the garden hose to my bike after every ride to get the 2 lbs of silty-clay off. If I rode when it was dry to prevent trail erosion I could ride one week in august then put my bike away. If I cleaned it like every mtb magazine suggests with a tooth brush and a fine tooth comb it would take me 3 hours every night. I have been a little hesitant of semi sealed housing systems because I have heard they seem to keep as much water and grime in as out, and I donít want to spend the money.

As for full length housing, the new fsrís have a set of guides already in place for hydraulic discs so I can use those. If I put discs on my Jamis I will probably do the same and drill out the housings.

The difficult part for me is that I have no baseline to compare: XTR v-brakes on my Jamis hardtail vs. Discs on a new FSR Enduro, apples to oranges. So many new variables and spring canít get here soon enough.

Thanks for the responses already and sorry for the murky wording in my first post.

I would only add...

Originally Posted by pulloff

Sorry about the vague "it didn't feel too impressive!Ē to clarify: thereís 2í of snow outside so I havenít actually ridden the bike yet. Iím trying to get it finished so when the first nice weather gets here I can take it for a spin (fingers crossed, soon!!).

...to reserve your judgement for the ride. Yes, if the housing is crap, you are probably better off changing it out, but if you're only trying to achive a static "fluid-like" feel to your lever action, you'll probably be disappointed.

I'm sure you're aware of this already, but it bears repeating: Don't wail on your levers in an attempt to stretch out the cables; you may end up damaging the ball bearing/ramp mechanism that actuates the pad.

avid cables & housing

I like using a teflon coated cable, and just buy a 25 foot roll of housing. Once a year I replace the cable and housing for that new feel. No need to shell out $$$ for other housings. Avid mech's are great, simple and just plain make sense, and for the price I don't know why I waited so long to try them. I'm sold. They aren't the lightest when compared to my Martas but they stop just as well.